Of metaphorical horses, dog-collars and bricks

Metaphors, figurative speech, proverbs and sayings – these can all be a minefield for people who use different languages. Translating them literally is unfortunate at best and incomprehensible at worst. Sometimes of course you can get an idea of what’s going on; if a Spanish-speaker says that when you have a horse given to you as a present you shouldn’t look at its teeth, it is easy to make it out as the English: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. A simple translation of the Spanish A caballo regalado, no le mires el dentado is close enough to the English to be understood, although it jars because such phrases are formulaic, and any deviation from the standard form of words is unfamiliar to us.

The other day I was asked by a translation agency to quote for a job that involved rewriting a text. In the end, as sometimes happens, the job didn’t come off although I had already submitted a very small part of the work as a sample. It was cancelled with no hard feelings and the client sounding positive about offering future work. My friend in the agency sent me an email: Más vale el perro que el collar. Well, yes, the dog is worth more than its collar, and a client who has cancelled a small job with no fee charged and no hard feelings might come back later with something bigger. I had not heard this Spanish proverb but thought that it seemed something similar to the English saying A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. After all, these things rarely equate as nicely as the horse’s teeth.

I told my friend that I liked his Spanish proverb – and then he told me that in the heat of the moment he had written it the wrong way round; it should have been Más vale el collar que el perro. That puts a different complexion on things; the collar is now worth more than the dog. How can that be? It can’t be much of a dog. Exactly. What it means now is that a secondary objective costs more than the primary one, or as we might say It’s more trouble than it’s worth.

In the cases that I have described so far the meaning of such an expression in another language is clear or can be worked out. But what would you think if a Spanish-speaker told you in English that he was taking your hair? You would be as confused as that same person would be if you said in Spanish Te estoy tirando de la pierna because in Spain people take each other’s hair when in English we pull other people’s legs.

If such a saying is transparent, it can be understood but the phrasing will seem strange. If it can be worked out, the meaning can be put across but most inefficiently; and a meaning can even be found for a spurious saying. But if it is totally opaque, confusion and even ridicule can ensue. Once, many years ago, I was involved with a European youth organisation. We had a president who had done a lot to increase its image and influence, and when he left after his term of office a eulogy was pronounced in which Carl was thanked for his work in our organisation ‘in which he has played the part of a brick.’ Sad to say, the British delegation immediately fell about laughing. For us a brick was a heavy, solid, boring, passive lump of hardened clay that would hurt you badly if it landed on your foot accidentally; most certainly not the sort of thing you would wish to be compared to. But for the speaker a brick was a fine, constructive, positive thing, an essential element in the construction of a house …

… in which he has played the part of a brick. (Image, Wikimedia Commons)

Comments

[trebots]

Minsheu has "vale más páxaro en mano que bueitre volando," another one that has you worrying about its original meaning even before looking for a foreign cousin.

[Peter Harvey]

Thank you. A translation for those who don't have the necessary knowledge of old Spanish:
A bird in the hand is worth more than a flying vulture.

Hmmm.

[Ronnie]

Surely every girls' school story when we were young ended with the heroine being commended thus; "Monica, you're a brick".